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An unusual Beatles 12″ arrived today; Ultimix 20 (UM-20F) includes the 5:20 version of Twist and Shout, remixed by Les Massengale and Bradley D. Hinkle. The record is made of transparent black/dark brown vinyl.

I love these remixes! Mid-80ies. So dated and kitschy. There are some other lovely DJ remix 12″:es in my collection. I’ll be back into the groove later on!

Not many photo attempts were made to catch The Beatles at the crossing that afternoon in early August 1969. Less than ten I think. It is remarkable that all other of the photos that I’ve seen from the session are of significantly less quality than the magic, almost perfect shot, that made it to the cover. Even the one on the HMV box is of poor quality, with Paul in flip flops and asymmetric walk

Almost on the day The Beatles’ greatest hits compilation ‘1’ was released 12 years ago. At the time I free-lanced for EMI Sweden on the project, doing promotional tasks. Do I have to say that it was a wonderful feeling being officially employed and (at least indirectly) paid by The Beatles for my work. The album went to No 1 in Sweden (as in most parts of the world I believe) and we could celebrate with a gold record by Christmas.

Here are two nice promos used in the campaign; ambitious ‘Soundbites’ (CDLRL 042) providing 36 comments by the Beatles on the 27 songs, primarily for radio use. At least in Sweden focus still was on “old” media but I remember there was a certain strategy to reach the young generation via “internet portals”. Facebook, MySpace and Google was never heard of.

‘Yesterday’ (Beatlespro 352) is a one track Danish delight with custom made inlay and cd label – the edition cannot have been that large really, 100 copies? Territories were allowed to produce their own promotional material for local use, so there might be some interesting things out there. I think I’ve seen a ‘The Long and Winding Road’ promo from ‘1’ somewhere.

One of the cleanest designed logos in the world of rock music is this beauty. I wounder why it hasn’t been used more by Macca and his MPL team. Maybe it will follow the same development as The Beatles bass drum logo; almost never used on official records until BBC and Anthology years. I looked for the logo like crazy in the early 90ies. It was used for the Anthology documentry episode introductions and I still remember the thrill I felt seeing it. I hope the wonderful Wings logo will be used alot more in the future. Anyway, I love it!

Ps. One great thing that comes with the Wings logo is the fans’ greeting gesture

I have never really understood the pricing of Butcher Covers. They are always on Ebay, the amount out there seem to be quite generous. And REALLY low editions like Harrison’s ‘Shanghai Surprise’ 7″ promo (100 reported copies) and Macca’s ‘No More Lonely Nights’ Mole or the Wingspan remixes 12″ (a few hundred made of each) sell for small bucks compared to big BC. How come? One might object: “is solo material” but still it is really closely connected to the Beatles. And the recordnings are nowhere else to be found. In economics the price will reflect the supply and the demand. The supply is minimal in this case so there shouldn’t be needed a really huge demand to make the prices fly high. I guess it’s the dramatic and well-known story behind BC that can explain parts of it. The small editions mentioned here are really underprised still I think, and there ARE interesting stories behind those gems. The stories have to be told and repeated and then we’ll see if my theory is correct 😉

Finally I’m starting the blog that’s been in my head for ages; devoted to the assorted delights of The Beatles and solo record gems!

Let me introduce to you – Blast from The past.

Here you’ll be able to follow the ups and downs of a record collector deep lost in the Beatle jungle. Especially the solo vegetation and topography will be in focus here – but let me start by introducing this recent rarity that arrived the other day – The missprinted and heavily debated 50th anniversary reissue of the ‘Love Me Do’ 7″. I’m sure you know all about it already. Anyhow here is one of the surviving examples! R 4949 (R 4717 sic!)